(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer networking systems. Specifically, the field of the present invention is that of computer systems where computers and computer peripherals (nodes) are interconnected on a network allowing the transfer of data and control information between nodes on the network.
(2) Prior Art
The capabilities of information processing and computer systems has been greatly enhanced by the use of networking. Networking in the prior art has provided the capability to interconnect computers and computer peripherals, thereby providing information transfer between these network components (nodes). Typically, however, nodes on prior art network must be equipped with an interface compatible with the network interface protocol. This requirement leads to the need for a particular node to support more than one type of interface. For example, if a computer is required to communicate with both a printer using parallel data communications and a modem using serial data communications, the computer must support both a serial and a parallel interface. Moreover, in a network containing both nodes using parallel and serial data transmission, the parallel nodes cannot communicate with the serial nodes.
Another problem exists in the prior art when determining the identity of each of the nodes connected to the network. Typically, the identity of a particular node must be established either by intervention from the user or through an identification code stored in unique hardware in each node. Networks where nodes are identified by the user are difficult to reconfigure, since the user must also reconfigure the identity of the nodes. Networks with nodes requiring unique hardware cause problems in the manufacture and configuration control of the unique hardware components.
Thus, a new network scheme is required for allowing common access to devices with dissimilar hardware interfaces.